The Great Eight

I just finished reading "The Great Eight" written by Scott Hamilton with Ken Baker. Most people know that Scott won Olympic Gold in 1984 at Sarajevo for his figure skating.His amazing agility and focus captured the hearts of most Americans. Later he skated as an entertainer in the Stars on Ice tour and accumulated wealth and fame. In this story, Scott shared his personal struggles as a young boy sickly and isolated and how skating opened up the door to opportunities most people never experience. Finding happiness was another thing. Scott struggled with prostate and brain cancer, many life disappointments, and the deaths of loved ones. He developed eight secrets to happiness that shaped his life and lead to him becoming a Christian. Scott discovered that fighting against God's plan was useless and that making the decision to change was a challenge. One of Scott's secrets was to "keep the ice clear". This meant keeping the lines of communication open so others were aware of his needs. Always afraid to confront an issue, Scott allowed anger to fester instead of sharing his thoughts with others. Once he broke through this barrier, his relationships became richer. Scott found that being authentic meant any misunderstandings were avoided because of the free flow of information in his interactios with people. This book was a good read and I appreciated Scott's ideas for achieving happiness. His approach was easy to understand and offered insight into the life of a sport's celebrity on a life long faith journey.